The Galaxy’s Finest - Armada Vassal World Cup 2025
21st January 2025
Rosco
8mins
G’day everyone! I’m back again, this time with a bit of a wrap about the Vassal World Cup and how I went during the pod phase this month! This is the first time that I’ve managed to have time to participate in the cup, as I’m usually deployed, at sea, moving, or doing something else and super busy during this time of year. So, I’m very excited to chat about my games against a few of the best players in the Armada community and my thoughts on my fleet as I consider taking it to the (in-person) Armada World Championship held during AdeptiCon in March.
But FIRST! HOT NEWS ON THE HOLONET!
The much-anticipated final Armada rules and points update from AMG has finally dropped (Link)! I’ll take a day or two to parse the info, then Barry and I will likely drop some hot takes in a post very soon…
But for now… back to the Vassal World Cup report!
What is the Vassal World Cup??
The Star Wars Armada Vassal World Cup (VWC) is an annual online tournament for Star Wars: Armada. The VWC specifically refers to the version of the tournament that is played using Vassal, an online game engine that allows players to play tabletop games over the internet. In recent years, Tabletop Simulator (TTS) on Steam is another engine that has become more accessible with an excellent mod for the game, so it has been added as an optional method to play out the game should both players agree, though Vassal itself remains the primary. These two platforms provide digital interfaces for Armada, allowing players from around the world to participate in the event, despite being physically distant. The Armada Hub Discord #tournaments channel is the main comms method used and this year’s TOs are long time community leaders and all-round good blokes @m3rcier, @Stewbucket and @GiledPallaeon.
The VWC draws competitive players from the global Armada community, making it one of the biggest and most prestigious events for the game and, usually, a good indicator of what we will likely see at the World Championship Tournament at AdeptiCon held in March each year (to be hosted at the Baird Centre, Milwaukee, USA in 2025). The competition emphasises both the skill of the players and their knowledge of the game’s mechanics and meta, with fleets built around different strategies, archetypes, and objectives. It’s also a great community event for fans of Armada, offering a space for players and spectators to connect, share strategies, and celebrate the game.
Format
The tournament format features three phases, and competitors play with the official rules of the game, fielding standard 400-point fleets from the four existing factions (Rebels, Empire, Separatists and Republic). This year, there are 60 players total that began the pod phase (including yours truly!). The three phases are:
Pod phase (01-22 Jan 25) - All players are split into 15 pods of four for a round-robin in each pod. Top two from each pod based on total tournament points (TP) advance to the next phase.
Swiss phase (22 Jan-19 Feb 25) - Standard four-round 30 player swiss tournament. Top four players advance to final phase.
Top cut phase (20 Feb 25-Complete) - Top four round-robin - Most TP wins the cup!
Prep Phase
After attending my first AdeptiCon and playing in the Worlds Last Chance Qualifier last year with my Imperial Ozzel squad heavy MSU list, I wanted to try something a little different that also punched a little harder. My MSU was fun to play, but the damage potential wasn’t high enough to get big wins for more points. So, I jumped on the bandwagon with many others in the Armada community and started playing Separatists for the first time in ages - probably since around when they were released in 2021.
I toyed with a few different lists and commanders, but settled on Mar Tuuk and played it most of last year from April onwards, tweaking it as I went. It did very well, for the most part - I even custom painted it to look badass (see previous Imperial Bosun’s Bargeworks post).
After arriving at version 4.01 of my ‘They Mar Tuuk our jerbs!’ list, I decided to put to the test and dip my toe into the online competitive scene at VWC25.
Pod Phase Shenanigans
Game 1 vs. AngryEwok: 166-337, 171 MoV to Ewok, 8-3TP
I ended up being placed in pod ‘Badi Dea’ and my first game was against the most venerable Ackbar main himself, @AngryEwok. He chose second player and I chose to play his Fire Lanes objective… Now was that a good idea…?
Knowing that he had a solid Ackbar fleet with max squads, I knew I had to try to manoeuvre my ships to get in range of his flagship and keep my fragile droid squad ball safe inside a flak bubble, ready to maybe try and get the alpha strike on his tougher squads to maybe get the upper hand. That didn’t go to plan…
By using his VCX-100 with strategic to shunt a fire lane token along with his fleet, meant that he could keep farming it each turn, but only one of them. One was on the far centre right and the other was well out of scope to the far left (out of pic), away from both fleets. I then moved up to try block in the Assault Frigate (‘space potato’) with the Patriot Fist (PF) Recusant destroyer, keeping my squads protected as I advanced… but, again, I ran away too fast with PF, leaving the rest of the fleet about a turn behind their time on top.
Just getting into the swing during round 2…
The manoeuvre kept my squads protected in a flak bubble for a short while, but Ewok smartly committed some hardy YT-2400’s to say hi to my squads and a couple of others to both protect his potato and place PF’s front arc at risk of bombing. Also, placing PF where it is and turning in too early, I jammed up my manoeuvring with the Munificent, costing me some ram damage and coordinated fire on Ackbar’s potato.
Things started to get a little spicy by round 4… flak bubble/JEZ in force
With the combination of sustained fire from the potato and some bombing, PF went down in a blaze of un-glory(?) in round 4, having only claimed a couple of squads. My squad ball was now split trying to make up some points from a token, his squads and a GR-75 transport flotilla - not enough to make up for PF’s loss, but enough to make it a 3-8, not a 2-9 loss.
Again, I made the mistake of getting excited and running away from the rest of my fleet with Patriot Fist, losing the ability to bring all guns to bear for sustained fire on one target and support my glass-cannon squad ball. He did extremely well in forcing me to split my squads to protect my over-extended PF. Well played mate, BZ.
Down goes Leeroy Jenkins… um, I mean Patriot Fist
Game 2 vs. Formynder: 400-121, 279 MoV to Me, 9-2TP
My second game was against @Formynder’s Admiral Piett Super Star Destroyer (SSD). He chose second player also and I chose his Intel Sweep objective. This time, I was determined to not run away from my own fleet too much. Then again… against a SSD the plan had to be different anyway.
Intel sweep was definitely the best choice of his objectives, though I can’t recall the others. Although there was a very low chance I’d be able to pick up three tokens before he did with the big boi, I had to focus on and destroy the SSD as quickly as possible. Usually, the best way is to focus on placing as many asteroid obstacles as possible in a loose triangle at the centre and then draw the SSD into it. Then drive my ships and bombers into the side and auxiliary arcs on the same side to limit any three-shot turns, due to no gunnery teams present on the SSD.
Sneaking around the asteroid field…
The plan to create a very dangerous rock field was successful and, unfortunately for Form, among the first critical cards he received was the Life support failure card, which meant he was unable to hold command tokens on the SSD. That effectively neutered Piett’s ability and, without any engineering dials locked in, also probably cost him the game right there and then. Nevertheless, he powered on, pummelling my squadrons and Hardcell transport, which managed to escape on 1 hull out to the far right, out of range. His Gozanti cruisers with the Palpatine and Vader crews on them, also suffered damage from skimming a rock and a collision, sending Vader’s transport into a rock.
For the rest of round 3 and 4, the ships and bombers continued to focus on the SSD’s side hull zones, finally bringing it down with a shot from PF at the end of round 4, leaving only one Gozanti on the table resulting in a tabling. Extremely bad luck on Form’s part pulling that particular card straight away, with no way to repair it. He managed to shred my squadron ball and three of the intel sweep tokens though, giving him some points to haul it back from a 10-1. He was great bloke about it though and it was still a fun game to play out. Cheers Form, GG.
Final shot… lost quite a few brave droid fighters and bombers [sad roger-rogers]
Game 3 vs. InRobWeTrust: 27-171, 144 MoV to Rob, 3-8TP
For my final game, I had an almost mirror match against @InRobWeTrust… well, the squadron ball was close anyway, but it was Separatist vs. Separatist. He chose second player and I chose his Close Range Intel Scan objective… which I quickly realised was not such a great idea…
This wasn’t going to be easy and we’re both likely to be cagey with our squad balls, each of us trying to create an opportunity to get the alpha in and win the squad fight.
With the deployment including the two LoS-blocking dust clouds, I positioned one to act as a barrier for my ship and squadrons to hide behind, and avoid long range shots too early. I missed getting a screen shot of the earlier rounds, but again I got too excited with PF and sped off, leaving the Muni behind with limited shots.
In the squad fight, I lost DIS-T81 (Dr. DISrespect) early, trying to snipe his DIS. Then he managed to draw out my squads in a haphazard way that broke their mutual support and flak cover.
I had hoped that he would eventually turn in and move through the dust cloud into my guns, but he continued to follow up behind my Munificent, farming it for objective tokens with close intel scan using a clever method. With the build on the Invincible Providence Carrier, he used EWS to keep his facing arc obstructed, then whenever he attacked or used a salvo against my attacks, he’d use Intensify Firepower! command to change a die to hit and then the H9 turbolasers to change it to an accuracy, to then spend it and gain a victory token for a cheeky 10pts each time. Absolutely awesome tactic to simply farm points while relatively staying out of any real danger.
Invincible decides to disengage after a belly full of victory tokens served by my Munificent…
There was a moment where I think Rob may have been sweating a tiny bit in round 3, as his Providence poked its head between the dust clouds and I got some very effective bombing runs on it. Unfortunately, all of my ships were too far out of position to capitalise on it and he disengaged safely off to the south, farming a couple more victory tokens and cleaning up my scattered squadron ball. Very well played by Rob overall, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons from this game. Thanks again Rob, GG!
Patriot Fist once again to fast and too far way to do anything meaningful before the end of round 6…
Conclusion
At the end of my pod games, having lost two and won one, I was sitting at a very modest 15TP overall. The others are yet to complete all of their games but it’s fairly likely that Ewok and Rob are the ones that progress to swiss and wish them all the best!!
Basically, I need to slow the hell down and figure out a better way to bring all my guns together for a simultaneous time on top… not run away from the rest of my fleet. From what I’ve figured, that begins with how I deploy my ships and knowing their relative positions multiple turns ahead. I’m quite well-versed in this for Rebel and Imperial ships, but the Separatist ships are a very different beast altogether. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually… maybe even take them to another comp to make sure. Choices, choices….
Anyway, I’m sending a very big congratulations to all those that won their way into the swiss phase and I wish you all the best for the rest of VWC25! I’ll continue to keep an eye on the comp and see how things play out, but I’ll also be checking out the latest points and doing some list building in preparation for Worlds at AdeptiCon in March!
In the meantime, I’ll just leave this here…
Cheers 🥃 and thanks for reading!
- Rosco
